Motivating cosmopolitan helping: Thick cosmopolitanism, responsibility for harm, and collective guilt

Abstract

Political theorists and philosophers have recently directed their attention to understanding how individuals may become motivated to act as ethical cosmopolitans. A prominent theory – termed “thick cosmopolitanism” – argues that the realization one’s ingroup is responsible for causing harm to people in distant nations will increase cosmopolitan helping behavior. Additionally, thick cosmopolitanism suggests that guilt may explain this effect. This article presents the first experimental tests of these claims, and is the first research to use experiments to investigate cosmopolitan helping. Results demonstrate a substantial, but previously unrecognized, limitation to thick cosmopolitanism. Specifically, reminders of ingroup responsibility for causing harm not only increased individuals’ acceptance of responsibility and collective guilt, which indirectly enhanced cosmopolitan helping (Studies 1 and 2), but simultaneously increased dehumanization of the harmed outgroup, which indirectly diminished helping (Study 2). These conflicting processes resulted in no overall increase in cosmopolitan helping, contrary to the predictions of thick cosmopolitanism.

“Put Yourself in Their Shoes”: Testing Empathy's Ability to Motivate Cosmopolitan Behavior

“…Indeed, results showed that identification with all humanity was a stronger predictor than empathy of cosmopolitan helping. This finding supports previous research showing that identification with all humanity is positively associated with cosmopolitan helping (Faulkner, ; Hamer & Gutowski, ; McFarland et al, ) and that manipulations of identification with all humanity can increase charitable behavior (Reese, Proch, & Finn, ). Importantly, however, the current findings indicate that empathy increases cosmopolitan helping independently of identification with all humanity.…”

“…Three variables that had been shown in previous research to be correlated with perspective taking, helping, or both were measured to control for their effects. These controls were anger (Brown, González, Zagefka, Manzi, & Čehajić, ; Faulkner, ; Leach, Iyer, & Pedersen, ), guilt (Faulkner, ; Leach et al, ; McGarty et al, ), and identification with all humanity (McFarland, Webb, & Brown, ).…”

Communicating Cosmopolitanism and Motivating Global Citizenship

“…Research in social psychology strongly suggests that guilt can be a powerful motivator for moral action and points towards its evolutionary role in fostering prosocial behaviour among early humans (Baumeister et al, 1994;Faulkner, 2014Faulkner, , 2016Haidt, 2003). A first problem with guilt is that evidence indicates that its motivational power does not extend all the way from the small group contexts of early human evolution to the global scale that cosmopolitanism calls for (Faulkner, 2016). Moreover, efforts to induce guilt can trigger negative reactions, in particular, the dehumanization of those who are suffering (Faulkner, 2014: 105-107).…”

“…First, while guilt can be a powerful motivator for socially responsible action, psychology research remains inconclusive on the behavioural impacts of guilt (Harvey and Oswald, 2000;Lickel et al, 2011), particularly towards groups as broad as 'all of humanity' (Faulkner, 2014(Faulkner, , 2016. Guilt can trigger responses oriented to repairing or apologizing for harm; but, when guilt is intertwined with shame, it can also evoke 'avoidance behaviour (e.g.…”

“…However, cosmopolitan theory has only just begun to seriously address the question of how to motivate individuals to act in accordance with the ethical principles of cosmopolitanism in practical ways in their real lives (Dobson, 2006;Faulkner, 2014Faulkner, , 2016Lenard, 2010;Linklater, 2007). While the arguments about the depth and extent of the duties owed across state borders vary widely among cosmopolitan theorists, even the most minimalist conceptions of cosmopolitan morality require motivational strategies to expand the sphere of moral action.…”